Postgraduate Publishing studies at Edinburgh Napier University. INDUSTRY APPROVED Publishing degrees (accredited by the Professional Publishers Association and Creative Skillset). MSc Publishing was the first Publishing programme in the UK to be accredited by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA). It is now accredited by Creative Skillset (only one of two courses to hold this award). MSc Magazine Publishing is the only course of its kind in Scotland and is the only publishing course in the UK to be accredited by the PPA. The PPA is the lead body for best practice in training, development and people management for the magazine and business media industry.

Programme Team

Alistair McCleery is Professor of Literature and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University where he is also Director of the Scottish Centre for the Book within which Postgraduate Publishing is based. With a real enthusiasm and passion for books and reading, Alistair believes that books are key instruments not only in personal development but also in social mobility and inclusion.

To this end, his own research and teaching has focussed upon ensuring the robustness of our reading culture and the availability of good books at affordable prices to service it. He has been involved in the promotion of reading development and in the analysis of best models for publishing. In particular, he has a strong commitment to the distinctiveness of the cultural heritage of the nations and regions of the UK, stemming from his Ulster background and long-term Scottish residence.

Prior to joining Edinburgh Napier, Avril was Managing Director and owner of Scottish Cultural Press and Scottish Children’s Press. Having worked in a variety of publishing roles before that, in publishing companies in London and Edinburgh, she has over 20 years’ professional experience in the industry. During this time she has developed very close links with the publishing industry, and the Postgraduate Publishing Placement module which she introduced utilises these contacts to enhance our students’ opportunities, including an organised publishing placement.

In 2011 she was invited to join the judging panel of the annual PPA Scotland School Magazine Awards, and in 2012 and 2015 she was a judge of the PPA Professional Magazine Awards. Research interests include the reading habits of teenagers, marketing in publishing, and publishing management. Considering publishing in its broadest sense, she leads a publishing studies programme that embraces books and eBooks, manga and monographs, zines, ezines and magazines.

In addition to her industry roles, Avril is Secretary of the Association for Publishing Education (APE), External Examiner at LCC, and member of theScottish Centre for the Book.

He has previously worked for De La Rue in the graphic arts area of colour reproduction and has been lecturing on publishing/production since 1990. Over that time he has also been involved in a wide range of consultancy and short course provision including: The Scotsman newspaper, set up of training institute Mauritius, Landmark Press, Adobe/Sykes, Tesco Finance and Quark. He runs CPD provision in image reproduction and page layout for commercial businesses. Derek maintains close links with local printers and repro companies, as well as manufacturers and software providers, such as Heidelberg, Fuiji graphic-systems and Quark. Derek’s particular area of expertise is in colour reproduction, digital imaging and on demand publishing.

Dave McCluskey tutors across a number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, teaching Journalism, Communication and Design students as well as Postgraduate Publishing students. He teaches on our Publishing in Practice modules in trimester 2 which includes our live projects.

Dave is a knowledgeable and innovative tutor, whose particular expertise in industry-specific software – such as Indesign and QuarkXPress – provides Publishing students with the indepth and up-to-date skills demanded by the industry. Dave also runs design courses for industry professionals and has been involved in a wide range of consultancy and short course provision, such as the recent Intensive Indesign Workshop for members of Publishing Scotland.

David McMurray has over 20 years’ experience in UK publishing working with magazine companies and publishers. He has worked in a number of management roles both as an employee and as a consultant. David lectures on both the MSc Publishing and MSc Magazine Publishing courses. He is particularly interested in the changing nature of magazines; audience development; magazine brand extensions and business models for publishing.

David is a former Chairman of the PPA (Scotland); has been a judge for the UK PPA Award; chaired the PPA Scottish Magazine Awards and is a previous winner of Publisher of the Year.

In trimester two, Professor Alistair Duff delivers a module to our MSc Magazine Publishing students. Alistair is interested in the information society and freedom of information, and he also covers research-oriented modules on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in journalism and publishing, as well as supervising research students.

With a background in philosophy (London, Glasgow) and information (Strathclyde, Napier), he has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Zurich and a visiting fellow at Oxford, and is currently an external examiner at City University, London, and the Lincoln School of Journalism. He has published journal articles, reviews and encyclopedia entries, and is now also completing a second research monograph: “Towards a Normative Theory of the Information Society”.

James Mavor is the Programme Leader for MA Screenwriting and he delivers the From Script to Screen module which our Postgraduate Publishing students can select in trimester two. James is a working scriptwriter with wide experience and number of credits, awards and award-nominations in television, film, theatre, radio, opera and prose. Credits include television series Doctor Finlay, The Bill and Monarch of the Glen. Original dramas for television include Split Second (2000) starring Clive Owen for BBC One, and Reichenbach Falls (2007), an adaptation of an Ian Rankin short story for BBC Four. A short story, ‘Brittle’, was published in New Scottish Writing 2007 (Polygon). Current work includes Disco, a short film being made in collaboration with Screen Academy staff and students. A feature film Sinner, is an adaptation of The Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg which James is co-writing with Ian Rankin. The script is in development with the UK Film Council and Scottish Screen.

David Griggs is Module Leader for Interactive Media – an option for Postgraduate Publishing students in trimester 2. David has a background in Visual Anthropology, Documentary Production and Web Design. He has produced and directed documentaries in Lesotho, RSA, consulted on Web based productions for Health Online Project and JISC as well as making a short documentary for Learning and Teaching Scotland. He consulted on the web presence with Hopscotch Films for Mark Cousins ‘Story of Film’ and has developed the Screen Academy Scotland website. Presently he is involved in the production of ‘Word Made Flesh’ a series of interviews directed by Devlin Crow for the MS Society. He was the researcher for Media Masters Online and continues his interests in online pedagogy in his role as Learning Contents Developer within the School of Arts and Creative Industries. For the last 4 years he has been lecturing on the subject of interactivity, focusing on Transmedia, Virtual Worlds, Alternate Reality Games, Pervasive Gaming and Web 2.0 (3.0 & 4.0) tools, Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding. David is also producing a slate of interactive online documentaries through his own small independent company.

Susan Laing is the Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Head of Entrepreneurship, School of Management and Law. She is module leader for the New Venture Planning module which our MSc Publishing students can select in trimester 2. Susan has developed a ‘pracademic’ philosophy in the delivery of Centre teaching which requires all of the team to have both academic qualifications and business experience. She believes this is what makes the Napier entrepreneurship experience so valuable to students.

Susan is a visiting lecturer at HAW Hamburg and ECUST (East China University of Science and Technology), Shanghai. At HAW Hamburg she created and delivers the European Entrepreneurship Exchange, and at ECUST she lectures on the MBA programme and is supporting them to develop their own Centre for Entrepreneurship. Susan has delivered conference papers in UK, Germany and China on ‘Innovative approaches to teaching entrepreneurship’ and is a contributing author in ‘Entrepreneurship; An International Perspective’.

She is equally comfortable in the business community having links with the Entrepreneurial Exchange, Scottish Enterprise, Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust, Institute of Directors, and the Federation of Small Businesses. Susan continues to run her own business and chairs the Board of EngineerAid a registered charity.

Research Students

Giulia Trentacostiis a PhD student in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University. She holds a Master’s degree in Publishing from Edinburgh Napier University and a BA in Modern Languages and Literatures (English and Russian) from the University of Pisa. Her MSc dissertation examined the current state of translation publishing in the UK and Ireland.

In November 2014 she was awarded a three-year studentship to fund her PhD research at Edinburgh Napier. Her project aims to analyse the impact that wide-spread English proficiency has on the European publishing market. In particular, her thesis focuses on the consumption of English-language trade books in the Netherlands and how this affects the local publishing scene.

She has co-edited the volume The Book in the Low Countries (Merchiston Publishing, 2015), as well as co-authored a report on the status of translated literature in Great Britain in collaboration with Literature Across Frontiers: Publishing of Translated Literature in the United Kingdom and Ireland Statistical Report (Literature Across Frontiers, 2015).

She is also contributing to a series of ongoing projects run by Literature Across Frontiers – a European platform for literary exchange and translation.

Anna Klamet is a PhD research student at Edinburgh Napier University, who graduated from Johannes Gutenberg University (Germany) in 2014, with an MSc in media management. Her thesis was entitled “Make or buy? A qualitative analysis of the organisational handling of digital innovations in the German publishing sector”. Prior to relocating to Scotland, she worked as an e-book product manager in the digital department of MairDumont, Germany’s largest travel information media group.

Anna was awarded a three-year studentship to fund her research at Edinburgh Napier. Her research focuses on e-publishing in small nations in Europe and examines how small and medium sized publishers are coping with the oligopoly structure in e-book distribution. The research will look at innovative e-publishing practices and the role current policy frameworks are playing in establishing new business models.

Helen Williams is currently undertaking PhD research on Scotland’s regional print economy in the nineteenth century, investigating aspects of the circulation of personnel and knowledge across Scottish print union networks in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at Edinburgh Napier University’s Scottish Centre for the Book (SCOB).

Helen is the Secretary of the Scottish Printing Archival Trust, and was the Programme Manager for the celebrations of ‘500 years of printing in Scotland’ in 2008.

She holds a Masters degree in Librarianship and has worked for the London Library, the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.

Fellowships

A programme of visiting non-stipendiary fellowships has been established by Scottish Centre for the Book (SCOB) in collaboration with other institutions. These visiting fellowships are offered to those who have sabbatical leave from other institutions, and who wish to come to Edinburgh to research into areas of relevance to the work of SCOB. Our Postgraduate Publishing programmes benefit from the expertise and research of these academics from around the world.

2014 – Professor Christoph BläsiProfessor of book studies at the Institute for Book Studies of Johannes Gutenberg University

Christoph Bläsi has been Professor for book studies at the Institute for Book Studies of Johannes Gutenberg University since 2009. Prior to this, he was professor at the University of Erlangen (2004-2009); for more than twelve years before that, he had worked in digital publishing and strategic information management of several leading German publishing houses (BI-Brockhaus, C. H. Beck, Vogel Business).Christoph Bläsi holds a degree in mathematics and German studies and a PhD in metalexicography. Since 2011, he has also been guest professor at the University of St. Gallen (CH). Apart from interoperability issues of e-books, Prof. Bläsi’s current focuses of research include automated ‘trend’/weak signal research based on the changing set of books on offer and innovation in the publishing business between content and technology as drivers. Read the paper which resulted from his research at Edinburgh Napier University here: http://www.smartbook-tisp.eu/resources/business-models-for-e-publishing

During 2010, Noel was a Leverhulme Research Fellow in the Scottish Centre for the Book. While based at Edinburgh Napier University, he wrote a chapter to a (then) forthcoming book: The History of Book Culture in New Zealand on the period 1890-1930. Additional research included the educational publishing of Scottish firm Thomas Nelson & Sons to understand the imperial relationship with New Zealand’s Whitcombe & Tombs. Noel also examined interdisciplinary Design research and education in the UK and delivered design lectures to our Postgrads.

2007–8 –Dr Ann Steiner(Lund University, Sweden)

Lecturer and research fellow in literature. Ann’s publications include a book on subscription book clubs in Sweden during the 1970s, articles on the international distribution of books via the internet, as well as articles for the International Journal of the Book.

Consultants, Guest Lecturers and Former Staff

Marion Sinclairis the current Chief Executive of Publishing Scotland. She has a background of 10 years in Publishing as Editorial Director of a literary press. Marion has incredibly strong links with Edinburgh Napier University, having been the Programme Leader and Lecturer on our MSc Publishing programme.

Marion frequently visits us to give Guest Lectures, to listen to student presentations and to catch up with all that is going on! We are proud to include Marion on our Industry Liaison Panel.

Lorraine Fannin and Aly Barr

Lorraine Fannin, OBE, was Director of the Scottish Publishers Association and CEO of its successor organisation, Publishing Scotland from 1987 – 2008. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Library of Scotland and of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature. She was formerly a member of the British Council Publishers Advisory Committee, the Publishing Qualifications Board and the Institute of Publishing Advisory Board. Lorraine joined the Scottish Centre for the Book at Edinburgh Napier University in 2009, working with Aly Barr on Creativity and Rights. Lorraine was a valued Guest Lecturer on our Publishing Programme.

We are currently persuading the rest of the team to upload their details – watch this space!